Thursday, 31 July 2014

thoughts and ramblings

What is your 'style'? Do you even have a style? And if you do, do you only have one? Lately I've been thinking about what style or category the way I dress would fall into, and this has also got me thinking about which my work would fall into.

I've never really had one style of dressing. I love kitsch and retro, but don't dress in that style much. I love pastel colours, and cute prints, but again, I don't wear these as much as I'd like. I always see uber cool minimal outfits and occasionally try wearing them. I'm a bit of a mish mash really. I like to mix lots of things together and hope for the best. I am way too indecisive, and picky, and generally not good at committing or making a decision, so it's just not possible for me to go 'oh I am only ever going to wear vintage or vintage-inspired clothing from now on.' I wish I could though. Not because I think people should pick one style and stick to it, because I DEFINITELY don't think that! But sometimes I wish I could just stick to one thing.

Take Ladybird Likes for example. When I set up my brand I purposefully kept the branding quite open and clean and minimal, because I knew if I made it too stylised I'd end up hating it and wanting to change it every other month! I always wanted Ladybird Likes to be a brand full of the things I love, but I worry sometimes I've sort of pigeon-holed it slightly. My niche is wooden laser cut jewellery, which I'm pretty happy with. However I also seem to have gone down a route of making kistch and vintage style pieces. Which, don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore! But sometimes I find myself longing for monochrome, and geometric shapes, and tiny metal charms, and crystals. Is that the Ladybird Likes style though?

This longing definitely ties in to what I spoke about a few weeks ago, when I talked about wanting to be 'cool' and 'on trend.' I know I could easily make pieces like this, but I worry I'd somehow be betraying my brand and its style. I love making these kitsch and retro pieces, but there are other sides to me too, and I think I need to work harder at making sure Ladybird Likes as a brand reflects all these sides. I also love 90s grunge style, and minimal monochrome style, and girly cute pastel style. I don't want Ladybird Likes to become a sort of caricature of itself, making the same sort of stuff in slightly different ways.

The problem is, whenever I talk about branding and creating a brand, I tell people the importance of finding your niche and your style, and building your brand around that. Picking a style that embodies your products and your ethos. Are you vintage, or boho, or natural and organic, or neon bright, or minimal and clean. You have to pick a style to use to portray your brand. So how do you create a brand when you have like five different styles?! It's something I need to keep working at, and I know it's going to be a slow process. I have already started - in the run up to Christmas I will be easing in lots of new products, including lots of stationery and gift items which are very different from my jewellery but hopefully will fit in nicely!

Do you guys ever feel like this? Where sometimes your brand or your company doesn't feel in line with the style you want it to be? Do you struggle with trying to have different styles within one brand?

1 comment:

I totally understand where you're coming from Zoe! I feel the same way about my (fledgling) business and blog - I'm constantly wondering whether to separate them into my different areas of interest or keep them as one. I like to think that things will happen organically though and grow in the direction they're meant to. I love your branding by the way! Great idea to keep it fairly simple so it can be more flexible.